By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 6
-- The
official visit
to the US of
UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Prince
Zeid
culminated,
such as it
was, in a
press
conference at
Georgetown Law
School on
February 6
that had
almost nothing
to do with
rights in the
US.
Zeid, perhaps
understandably
but
significantly,
began the
press
conference
with a speech
not about the
US, police
brutality or
discrimination
in lend, about
about the
burning to
death by ISIS
of a Jordanian
pilot. Would
an event in,
say, Sudan
have begun
this way?
Zeid's office
at the UN in
New York
pitched his
appearance to
select
journalists at
UNHQ -- not
Inner City
Press - by
sending a link
to the webcast
on C-SPAN.
Notably,
C-SPAN said
before Zeid
spoke that he
was expected
to address the
burned
Jordanian
pilot, and
identifying
Zeid and
former
Jordanian
Ambassador to
the US.
Who tipped
them off? Who
promoted the
event this
way?
This
perspective at
Zeid's office
in Geneva may
even get
worse. Inner
City Press
exclusively
reports that
while Zeid's
deputy Flavia
Pansieri of
Italyis
scheduled to
end her
term on 15
March 15, she
is apparently
seeking an
extension at
OHCHR. While
some say Italy
is not
expected to
actively
support an
extension for
Pansieri, as
it is focused
on lobbying
for Emma
Bonino to be
appointed as
head of OCHA,
while
half-Italian,
half-Swedish
Staffan de
Mistura is
Special Envoy
on Syria.
Inner City is
told that
OHCHR New York
ASG Ivan
Simonovic has
an interest in
the Iraq
position being
vacated by
Nicholai
Mladenev (as
first reported
by Inner Cty
Press on
January
30). If
Simonovic goes
to the Iraq
post, then the
thinking is
that Secretary
General Ban
K-moon might
extend
Pansieri, on
the basis that
it would not
be wise to
have both
OHCHR ASGs
depart at the
same time,
with a
recently
appointed HC
Zeid (see
below).
But
now another
factor - on
the day that
Zeid shoud
have, at least
for one day,
focused on
rights INSIDE
the US, he
instead
focused on the
killing of a
Jordanian
pilot. Groups
he met with
wrote to Inner
City Press,
and even urged
coverage of
the press
conference.
But it was
mostly NOT
about the US.
, 
